Ground transportation vehicles, including those that operate on the ground and above or under the ground (examples include those that travel in, on, and/or through roads, bridges, rail systems, tunnels, water, and levitated above ground such as MagLev trains) (hereinafter “ground transportation vehicles”), are used in a multitude of applications based on, among other things, user requirements, budgets, and intended or anticipated use. As such, ground transportation vehicles will comprise fundamentally distinct underlying technologies.
Automated and semi-automated ground transportation vehicles are generally used in applications that require transporting of cargo and/or persons along one or more fixed or variably fixed routes. For example, trains have been widely employed for use in transporting cargo and/or persons between two or more points, such as stations, along fixed or variably fixed routes. Oftentimes, the route of ground transportation vehicles are formed in a closed-ended or open-ended manner so as to return the ground transportation vehicles back to the same point of origin. In such applications, the ground transportation vehicles along such routes may stop at one or more points in between the point of origin, or may not stop at all. For example, public commuter trains traverse fixed routes and make frequent stops at and/or in between subway stations along their routes. Much larger and heavier cargo trains also travel along fixed or variably fixed routes and may make frequent planned and/or unplanned stops, such as to pick up or unload cargo and at traffic signals. High-speed magnetic levitation (MagLev) trains, which utilize magnetic levitation to levitate, move, and direct trains at very high speeds and acceleration, are becoming increasingly used in many parts of the world, including North America, Europe, and Asia. Rollercoasters are an example of very fast ground transportation vehicles used in transporting persons back to the same point of origin, although such transportation generally involves much higher acceleration/deceleration and greater elevation changes, and are intended for a different purpose—thrill from the speed, high elevation drops, and quick and abrupt stops.
Differences between the various types of ground transportation vehicles, such as those described above, include the fundamentally distinct underlying systems and methods used to operate the vehicles, rate of acceleration, top speed, rate of deceleration, and overall mass of the collective vehicle. On the other hand, commonalities between the different types of ground transportation vehicles include the significant amount of energy expended to operate the vehicles, including starting, accelerating, decelerating, and stopping.
Despite recent advances in energy efficiency of ground transportation vehicles, including those pertaining to starting a vehicle from a stationary position, accelerating a vehicle, and maintaining speed of a moving vehicle, it is recognized herein that the operation of certain conventional vehicles can be improved, and overall energy consumption can be substantially reduced as a result.